Greens all fired up over Mossmorran

The latest flaring episodes at a Fife chemical plant produced the same amount of CO2 emissions as 9,200 people taking return flights between Glasgow and New York, the Scottish Greens have said.

The Sco t t ish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) confirmed during the most recent three-day flaring period at Mo s s m o r r a n , b e twe e n October 4-6, 13,800 tonnes of CO2 was emitted.

Protesters have gathered outside Mossmorran in recent weeks to call for the closure of the plant, which employs around 200 people.

Residents have been left

“terrified” by continuous flaring events, which see huge flames erupt into the sky, visible as far south as Edinburgh.

O c t o b e r ’s incident resulted in more than 740 complaints to Sepa.

Operator ExxonMobil blamed the flare on a faulty part in a compressor and said it had now been replaced.

Mid Scotland and Fife Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: “Flaring is distressing and highly disruptive for local residents every time this fossil fuel relic suffers a breakdown, but these figures also now show the catastrophic long- term impacts this is having on our environment.

“Scotland has a legally binding target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, so it’s baffling to find out this much carbon is regularly being burned off into our atmosphere with very little consequence for the operators.

“Work is planned to reduce the impac ts of flaring, but it’s already been delayed and, as far as I understand, it won’t have a significant impact on reducing carbon emissions.

“The operations of this plant fundamentally rely on the burning of huge quantities of fossil fuels, and we urgently need a plan to decarbonise it, or transition away from fossil fuel industries altogether.”

Sepa, in response to a request from Mr Ruskell, said it did not hold “precise composition of the gases flared across the whole event”, as these will vary depending on the exact stage of operation and process conditions.

It added: “Ho w e v e r, ExxonMobil have previously provided some typical flare gas compositions and based on these the carbon dioxide emissions could be in the range 2.5–3tes CO2/te of gas flared.

“ExxonMobil reported to us that the total amount of gas flared was 4,600tes and therefore the amount of CO2 could be in the range 11,500–13,800tes”

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said: “Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) is committed to minimising CO2 emissions and maximising energy efficiency.

“It is also important to understand that we report and p ay for our CO2 emissions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

(EU ETS), which provides us with added incentive to minimise emissions.

“We have a number of innovations in heat integration.

“ExxonMobil is pursuing technologies to enhance existing operations and develop alternative energies with a lower carbon intensity.”

FLAMES: Flaring has been described as “distressing”.